Oxytocin and depresion

Iyesterday in clss the topic of hormones were discussed and the hormone Oxytocin came up. the teacher dicribed it as a bonding hormone which inhanced moods and hepled people bond. this intrested me because my mom has depresion. her depresion started about 10 years ago, after she had cancer. the thing is I am wondering if they might e related. her depression and levels of oxytocin. because before she had cancer she was a very caring parent,she wan involved with use kids and put an actual effort into our care. she cared. after she had cancer and went through chemo she changed. she became less caring and more distant. all her beliefs were the same but her behaviour was completely different. she was reserved, distant, and became totlay disintrested in our lives. recently I learned that I wasn't the only person who say this which is why I don't discount what I after she recovered. basicly could her levels of Oxytocin changed because of chemo and could they have cause such a dreastic change in her, and could they be responcible for depression or the severity of her depression. I do know though that depression does run in our family, but I also know that even though the trait may run in a family there usually needs to be a trigure for it.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Your teacher is right about oxytocin, but it would be a stretch to think that hormone was effected by the chemotherapy without some evidence that that actually occurs. Having cancer is really enough to explain your mother's change of behavior and depression...she should get treated for the depression because obviously she has survived the cancer but not the psychological effect on her life.